the tavern
by bowdowntothequeenlp
Summary: Regina has been sneaking away to a village at every chance she can get. one night after pulling of a heist robin and his men take up shelter at this village and plan to stay there for a few weeks to keep their heads low. robin tries stealing from her in a bar but she catches him. she had managed to out smart the king of thieves. robin must know who this woman is.
1. The day they meet - Chapter 1

(Regina's POV)

I was sitting in a tavern a few miles away from the palace that I was kept prisoner in.  
it was dark and damp and it smelt like vomit, sweat and bear. The only light available was the small flickers of candle light dotted around the room in a messy fashion but i didn't care any place was better than the castle. Even if I knew I could only have a few hours of freedom before someone realises that I am not where I should be.  
No one knows me here and it feels good. In the palace when anyone saw me they would avert their eyes and lower their head as if I was never there. Apart from snow and the king, the only time any one would ever speak to me would be when the guards came in to my room at night to tell me that he (the king) requested my attendance in his room. Even when they would help me walk back to my room with blood staining my night dress and running down my buckling legs even after hearing my screams and pleads for help I would not hear a word from them. Nothing but A gentle but strong had on either side of my arms to help me walk. Feelings of sadness, knowing and pity flowing from their eyes but still I would not hear a word.

It's nice to hear the laughter of the drunken men a few tables away. It's nice to listen in on their conversations of the adventures they have had and the place they have seen and even the trouble they have been in.

It's just nice.

(Robin's POV)

We have just come back from another successful carriage highest. My men had already entered the tavern in which we would be celebrating in but I had to go and check on Roland. The women of our camp had been given a large guest room just to the back of the pub to share seeing as there were only three of them. Maya, little John's wife. Nina and older lady who was in charge of keeping the camp running and Danielle a young girl around the age of 19 that they had found wondering the woods alone when she was in her early teens. And of course little Roland would be staying in with them tonight.

After putting him to sleep and bidding the women a good night's rest I entered the tavern. And headed straight to the table my men were sitting at.  
I dropped my self in to the seat next to little John and took a long gulp of the bear that was put in front of me. I joined in on the story telling and laughed along with my men until bobby who was sitting on the other side of me leans in close and said in a hushed whisper "hay boss, look over there ." nodding over to where a young woman sat with her back towards us. Her long black hair cascading gently down her back a white dress showing her thin figure. "I think she's a Nobel boss. She must be. No one around here has enough money to be wearing clothes like that"  
"yeah, she's a Nobel alright bobby, but what is she in here? There must be a few better places more suited for her types around here. Why is she in this tavern?" I replied in the same hushed whisper.  
" does it matter boss? "  
I'm feeling lucky robin after the great day we've had robin, how'd you feel about having a little chat with her"  
I grind at bobby he always did keep his eye on the ball. And he was right. The coins and other treasures that we had stolen this morning would be enough to keep a village going for a month or so but every little helped. She may have a few decent pieces of jewellery that i could take.


	2. The day they meet - Chapter 2

(Regina's POV)

I'm playing with Daniels ring that sits delicately around my neck on a long thin golden chain as i watch, fascinated by the people that surrounded me. I let it go as I reach to the newly placed drink or water I had ordered a few moments prier, when I heard "James dear friend! I'll have another one please" in a ruff accented voice as a man with a hood covering his face slipped in to the seat next to me. "And one for the lady too."  
I turned my head towards the mystery man slowly. Only a smirk visible from underneath the hood.  
"I'm fine thank you." i say to the bartender. Turning back to look at the man "I've already got one."

(Robins POV)  
I stand up heading over to the woman sitting on a stool at the bar. I pull my hood up and over my head to cover my face. Then I slowly sit down next to her as I ask James the man who owns this establishment, who is sheltering us all for a few nights and a good friend of mine to get me another drink. And one for her to. I wouldn't want to be rude.  
After all if I was going to steal from her I might as well get her a drink first. Right?

But she declines my drink offer stating that she already had one. So I had to think of a way to get her talking to me. She had turned her body slightly towards me so her top half is nearly facing me but her bottom half is still neatly facing the strait underneath the bar. Giving me a better view of her. And good god she is stunning! Wearing simple makeup accentuating her big brown coco coloured eyes that have look like I could use them as a window into her sole. Long black eye lashes that brush her cheek gently every time she blinks. Perfect pink plump lips that are slightly apart. her dark hear falling softly against the sides of her face and down to the neck line of the dress that she wears that sits delicately on her bust and cascading down even further. I can't help noticing the pieces on hair that have fallen in to the valley of her breasts. That's when I see a small golden chain that is heading there too. I can't see what is on the end of the chain because it is long enough that it would go unnoticed buy any one unless they knew it was there but that is enough to pull me out of my thoughts. She is still looking at me as I pull my hood down slowly reviling my face to her in the candle lit room.

(Regina's POV)

I look him over quickly. He doesn't seem to be anything special. From what o could tell he was well built and laws quite a bit taller than me. But never of those things were unusual. I was only about 5"5 and most of the men around hear worked on farms are did some kind of manual larger that get them in to good shape and kept them there.  
I turned towards him a little bit more now half facing him as he slowly pulls his hood down to reveal his face to me.  
I was drawn in by those eyes. They were so blue. He must have seen me looking at him as his smirk grew sowing him deep set dimples to the world. I looked away towards my drink picking it up and taking a drink from it. Setting it back down I started turning back towards the bar when I heard him speak again.

(Robins POV)  
"so what's a lady like you doing in a place like this all by herself" I asked her as she started to turn away from me  
"I don't see how that's any of your business " she said looking at the drink in hand.  
"Ohhh" I laughed "it's not. Just trying to start up a conversion"

(Regina's POV)  
"and what if I don't want to speak you" I asked Turing my head towards him and raisin a perfect eye brow at him.  
I sat there thinking about how much this reminded me of how I use to banter around with the guards at my home when I was a teen. They would say something and I would be so fast at replying with a snarky comment. It was so much fun they were like uncles to me.

I'm not really in to mood for chit chat at the moment. I'm counting down the time. Half an hour until I have to leave this tavern which I have grown to call my sanctuary and ride back to the place I call my prison before any one try's to find me for whatever the reasons they have.

(Robins POV)  
I smile at her. I can already tell she is no normal noble. A _normal_ lady wouldn't be seen dead in here that's for sure, and a _normal_ lady wouldn't be as fast worded as she seemed to be. Let alone starting a word sparing conversation with a man asking her a polite question.  
Well a man plotting to steal from her any way but she doesn't know that.


	3. The day they meet - Chapter 3

(Regina's POV)

"Well what if I don't want to talk to you." I asked him

"Well then that would be a great shame indeed "he said with his smirk still firmly I'm place.

I didn't reply.

"Robin." he said as he extended his hand towards me.

(Robins POV)

I was sitting there while she was looking at me. Not sure of what was going through her brain.

I noticed a golden bangle with a horse pendant sitting delicately on her wrist.

And a ring!

A ring so big that it looks like it would pull her down on to her side with the weight of it. Full to the brim with every sparkling rock you could think of. ...and ... it was on her wedding finger.

No wonder she wasn't flirting back.

I mean... I was being charming!

This worked on everyone else and that must be the reason it wasn't working on her. She was married. And was loyal.

"Well there goes my chance of a bit of fun tonight, might as well get this started" I thought to myself.  
I extended my hand towards her and said my name aloud. In hopes that she would reply with her own and a hand shake. In witch I could then remove both bracelet and ring.

(Regina's POV)

I looked at him. And then to his hand.  
" you should really stop being an ass. All he is trying to do is start up a conversation. After all isn't that partly why you left the palace in the first place?" I thought to myself.

I huffed. Extending my hand towards him and taking a hold of his hand "Regina"  
The moment I touched my hand in his I felt my ring move delicately of my finger. So gentility in fact that I wasn't sure if I had imagined it. I was mad at first. I mean what the hell! He was stealing from me! Then I stopped and thought about it for a second.  
The ring that he had stolen and already pocketed meant nothing to me. It was something that the king used to show everyone who I belonged to. As if it was a brand that he had burned in to my skin like a master does to its herd of cattle. It was his way of showing his ownership of me. It meant nothing! It means nothing! It wasn't as though it was Daniels ring he had taken. That would be another thing completely.  
So i calmed myself. I no longer cared what happened to it. Sure I was going to regret that when the king found out about the missing ring but at this moment in time I don't care.  
Then his other hand came up and enclosed my small hand in between his two large ones.  
"It is a pleasure to meet you Regina. Your name is as beautiful as you are" while I was listing to him I felt my bangle on my wrist move.  
The bangle was not like the ring, it had sentimental value. My father gave it to me on my 16th birthday. It had a charm hanging on it that I and he all ways would say looked like my horse Rocinante.

This I would not let go so easily. By the time I had finished my thoughts though he had already um clipped the clasp and was letting go of my hand. bringing his free hand to his drink and then taking it to his mouth and the one with the bracelet now concealed in his hand to his side further away from me, and into the same pocket that he at disposed of the ring to. I receded my hand and turns back to the bar. Acting as though I was none the wiser.

Until the coins in a pouch at my side, that I had been using to pay for my drinks had been taken to. That didn't bother me at all. There was plenty more where that came from when you are the wife of the king.

(Robins POV)

I had removed the bracelet and the ring. I wasn't going to even try to get the necklace that I had seen hanging around her neck earlier as that would have meant that I would have had to get closer and I have a feeling that that would in nerve her a little.

I look down and I see the coin pack at her side and take that to. "It's quite heavy so there must be a few coins in there" I thought to myself.

Once I gave her a once over to make sure there was nothing else on her of worth I turned back to the front of the bar, just as she had a few moments earlier.

(Regina's POV)

We sat there for a few minutes still not having said a single word to each other.  
I was thinking of what Rumpelstiltskin told me. About the lesson of making an object disappear from one place and then making it re-appear again in another.  
I bent my head forwards so my hair would fall and cover my face. My hands went to rest on my lap under the bar top in fists. I closed my eyes and concentrated on my breathing.  
Then I felt it. Something was I'm my hand. I opened my fist slightly so I could run my finger over the bangle and then over the horse charm that was attached to it. I let out a quite relived breath and relaxed.  
We sat the for a few more seconds still in quite until I looked up to the clock.

Time's up. 11pm

"Well as much fun this has been, I have to be going" I sighed in a sarcastic voice.  
Getting up and heading to the door.

(Robins POV)

I watched her getting up to leave. And felt this weird sensation to ask her to stay longer.  
While we were sitting there nether-one of us had spoken another word to each other but it was nice.

My eyes follow her to the door.  
She stops and turns back towards me.

"OH and you can keep the ring and the coins you took from me... but" she said. Lifting her hand to show the golden bangle and pendent to him. With a smile on her face and a raised eyebrow "I'm keeping this" and with that she walked out the door.

I sat there stunned!

Did that just happen?

(Bobby's POV)

I sat and watched the master at work.

He manages to get two pieces of jewellery that I see and a coin pack.  
And then he just sits there. This is not unusual for robin though. When doing single person pick-pocketing he normally sits and waits for the mark to leave before he will to make his move to regroup with the others. It was clean job, she hadn't noticed a thing.

I watch as the woman gets up to leave and then as she stops and tells robin that he can keep the things that he had taken from her and even goes as far as to show him one of the things that he had taken from her, and which she had somehow gotten back from him.

And then she had left. Just like that.

I look around to the rest of the men. It is obvious that they too had seen and heard what had just gone on two. 

**OK so I think this is long enough. What do you guys think of it so far? X**


	4. The day they meet - Chapter 4

(Bobby's POV)

"Did my eyes just device me or did the king of thieves just get out thieved by a woman"  
I said loud enough for robin to hear from the other side of the room were robin sat staring open mouthed at the now closed door of the tavern in which the mystery woman only seconds be for had left through.

The men at my table chuckled gently and "come on Robin get yourself another drink and come and sit with us again. She's probably long gone now any ways. Just let her keep the little trinket of hers, it didn't look that expensive any way." little john said from next to me. But as I have been with robin for most of our life I know that look that he has on his face at this moment in time and that look was not because he wanted the bangle that she had stolen back from him. And from the way I can see him searching his mined for what to do means to me that coming to sit with us was definitely not what he was planning to do.

I laughed lightly as I stood up and made my was over to the still UN moving man. I place my hand on his shoulder and waited for him to look my way." Go on my friend" I nodded towards the door "go and see if you can find her".

With one last look to the men robin was up and walking out of the door. I take my seat back at the table with the merry men which were now more like the quite drunk men.

"That little lass better watch herself. The last time I saw robin with that look on his face, it was directed to little Marian bless her sole." I take a breath and a drink of what ever had been placed in front of me. "I think robin may have set his sights on another precious jewel that he intends to steel. And I'm not talking about any jewellery either" I say out low to no one in particular.

(Robins POV)

"_You can keep the ring and the coins that you have taken from me. But"_ she says. I was in shock. No one ever realises that I have stolen from them. Not until they are too far away to do anything about any way. But her, She just plaid it of as if he had been the most heavy handed person to have ever tried his hand at stealing.

"How can this be? I'm called the king of thieves for god's sake. How could she have noticed me taking any of those things and how could I not have noticed her noticing me!" my eyes widen. "she is really something" I thought taking her in. she was standing there with her hand on the door to stop it falling shut on her half in and half out of the tavern. The night sky light basking her in all her gory that she was.

She raises her hand and I couldn't believe my eyes. The bracelet was hanging from in-between her delicate fingers. My eyes widen and my mouth parts "HOW THE HELL!"I think.

"_I'm keeping this"_ and with that she walks out of the tavern letting the door fall shut behind her.

I don't know what to say, i don t know what to think. Not only had she court me red handed stealing from her but she had also managed to get one of the items back. How could she have done that? She never moved!.

But that was not the only thing that was confusing him. Regina had only taken the bangle and nothing else. If anything why didn't she take her wedding ring? Wouldn't that have more sentimental value? It was definitely worth more than the bangle that's for sure. And then there was the way that she had raised her eyebrow at him and the way she had a small argent smirk, like the ones he wears, weaved in to the smiling lips that she wore on her beautiful face.

I just sat there for a few seconds just trying to sort through all of the question that were running wild in my head.

_"Did my eyes just device me or did the king of thieves just get out thieved by a woman"_I heard bobby say from where he sat at in the tavern. That's when I remembered. Not only did she do something that I thought to be impossible but it all went down in front of my men. Great, just great I will be hearing about this for quite some time I know it. But to be honest it wasn't bovvering me that much. What was starting to bovver me was the feeling that I had just let one of the most stunning, beautiful, sassy, quick witted, un known puzzles walk away from me and I didn't feel very good.

I heard the smallish group of men that sat at the with bobby at the table chuckle gently

_"come on Robin get yourself another drink and come and sit with us again." __little__john__said, then__ "She's probably long gone now any ways."__that's__when i__stopped listening. My__heart__started to beat at double speed. What if __I'm __never able to__see her again?__I don't think I could bear it.__  
__"Hold on_! _What is happening!_  
I only met this woman about an hour ago and I'm already falling for her! I don't understand how can this be?" I think to my self

I felt a hand being placed on my shoulder. I turned slowly towards the owner of the hand, it was bobby." Go on my friend" he said to me as he nodded towards the door slightly "go and see if you can find her". I sighed he always could read me like a book. I got up and moved towards the door and headed out of the tavern to see if I could finder my new obsession called Regina.

_**This is only a short chapter I'm afraid and so will the next one be I think. But what do you think of it so far? And questions or pointers or that you think need changing? I love hearing from you all so please review **_


	5. the day they meet - Chapter 5

**Ok so i think a few people are a little confused about the timing of this story and Roland as a character so i just want to clear it up as best as i can.**

**Ok, so, this story is slightly AU and yes Regina is still married to the King. Snow is about 13 in this, that's if i do bring her in to the story that is, and Regina is about 20-21.**

**Marian is already dead and if she is not dead then they believe her to be I'm just not to sure of how or why yet and Roland is 3 nearly 4 years old. Robin is in his late 20's ( not sure exactly how old yet)**

**Also there is no curse.**

**i hope this has cleared it up if not just ask. :p**

(Regina's POV)

I smile as walk out of the tavern door and head the stables where I have paid one of the local boys to look over Rocinante. He was to make sure she has food and water and that she is ready for the journey back to the palace. I spot the boy sitting on the fence of the paddock in which Rocinante is enclosed in. He is stroking her main gently while eating an apple. I watch her as she nudges his hand with her nose a few times "fine." I hear him say "Go on then, it's my second one today any way." as he hands the apple over.

I walk up behind him and lean in next to him. "She is so spoiled already by me and now it looks like she got you rapped around her hoof" I laugh as he turns around and looks at me with a smile.

_This has been our routine for the last few months. Whenever I am able to sneak away I come here. I hand the rains over to the smiling boy who has just entered his early teens and then wonder around. Sometimes spending the night with the children of the small village or walking around looking at the scenic views that surround this place. Sometimes I spend the time sitting with a lovely lady that people call granny helping her with the chores she has to do and having granny teach her how to cook, that is one of my favourite things to do. And other times when i don't feel like doing any of them i head towards the tavern and spend the night in there. Then when it is time to leave I head to the paddock where I always find him sitting with __Rocinante._

"I hope one day I will own a horse as magnificent as her. She's so kind and loving and is so well trained" he says

"Well that's just who she is." I say climbing over the fence picking up the saddle that was sitting on the fence as well as the bridal and place it on her back and tightening the straps and making sure that it will be sturdy and won't move position when I get on it "I have never really had to train her. Were both free spirits who like to run as fast as we can with the wind blowing in our faces" stroking the horses face as she places the bit in the horse's mouth and places the bridal around her head and fastens it.

"Are you ever going to tell any of us your name?" the boy said

"Some of you DO know my name" I replied with a smile taking a hold of Rocinante rains as he jumps down from the fence and opens the gate so I can walk her out on to dirt road.

"Yeh but only granny knows it and she won't tell me." He wines looking at me with big puppy dog eyes.

I huff smiling "fine" I say brushing my hand over his cheek. "You tell me yours and I'll tell you mine" after all there was no point trying to hide any more like i did in the beginning because Most of the people who live in this village know me now and because they don't know my name they copied granny who has taken to calling her _girl. _And the first time that I had asked him his name he wouldn't tell me because I wouldn't tell him. In the end I became a little bit of a running joke between us and i just started calling him kid.

The smile that he replied to me with was one of the cutest I had ever seen "HENRY! MY NAMES HENRY" he screamed jumping up and down on the spot

"Hahaha well henry my name is Regina"

"That's a lovey name"

"Thank you henry" I smiled to him as I hoist my self graciously onto Rocinante.

"When are you coming back?" henry asked

"Umm ….. Not for at least two days I'm afraid" I said to him

"Ok" he said with a slight pout pulling at his lips that he was trying to pull back

I smiled down at him "I will see you soon good sir" I said with a smile.

"And you m'lady "he said with a slight laugh as I taped the horses neck and told her to walk on heading past the tavern and continuing up the road that leads in to the forest. After a few paces I turn and wave back to the boy I now knew as henry. After he waves back I turn myself forwards again.

As I come up to the tavern door it opens revelling robin. I see his shocked face rome over me and as he makes contact with my face. I laugh slightly to myself at how his face still holds the confused and bewildered expression that it held when I walked out of the tavern. I blew him a kiss and then wink as I start Rocinante of at full-on sprint, rising slightly from the saddle to make the position a little more comfortable. My hair pulled behind me by the wind.

Only a few more day until I can find my freedom again But I have the knowledge that there are people who care about me here and that's what will get me thorough the next few days of hell that I am to live.

(Robin's POV)

I startle as I step out of the tavern and into the path of an oncoming horse. I look up tracing the woman's form from her feet in the stirrups to her toned legs that are partly hidden by her dress and up onto the perfectly poised body that sits above the saddle and carrying on up to the face of what looks to me like an image of an angel that has somehow made its way down to us from the heavens above and then that picture fades in to mischievous and sexy woman who raises her eyebrow at me and in the very faint light coming out of the tavern windows and the nights stars, i see her blow a kiss to me with the most perfect lips I had ever seen. and the just like that she is gone. Galloping at lightning speed down the dirt road and in to then night "good bye Regina, see you in a few days" I hear from a childes mouth. I turn to find the owner of it. The young boy still standing there in the middle of the road with his hand in the air still waving to the now non-existent woman on top of the horse that had mad made my trousers feel a little tighter than usual after our little and brief interactions.

"Hay, young man" I hollered over to him as he was retreating in to the home of a woman I know to be called granny. "Did she say that she was coming back any time soon?" I asked after realising that I had been unable to say a single word to her as I was gawking up at her as she sat upon her steed. "No wonder she looked like she was about to fall in to a fit of laughter" I thought to myself "but now I have no idea if I will ever see her again".

As I asked him the question granny herself walked out the door and ushered him inside telling him to wash up and head to bed and that she had already let him stay up late enough that night when he tried to protest. Robin asked her "do you know of the woman with long raven black hair and deep brown eyes who just this moment left riding on her steed?" in which she replied

"Indeed I do robin but what is it to you?"

"Do you know if she is intended to come back here?"

"Ohhh, that girl can never stay away two long" she laughed at how robins face fills with happiness "goodnight robin" she sez as she walks in to her home and shuts the door "and you granny" I reply. Walking in to the tavern thinking about how lucky it is that we were already planning to stay here for a few months as the winter was coming in so that it would be safer for Roland because I did not think that trying to explain to my men that the reason I wanted to stay was because of the very reason that the will already find hard to take me seriously for the next few days.


	6. Chapter 6

(Regina's POV)

The king had left for an emergency trip to speak with king Nottingham about a very important matter, a matter that I was not permitted to know about. Not that he ever told me anything any way, he had departed the morning after I had gotten back from going to the tavern and didn't even bother to say good bye and that suited me perfectly, I could be free (ish) for the next 3 days. It would take him one day to ride Nottingham's castle, he would stay a day and sleep for the night and then leave in the morning. He had promised Snow that he would be home before the 3 moon was fully in the sky. The sun has just started to rise signifying that today was the middle day. I had decided to take a ride for the day and told the guards that I didn't want company and since the king wasn't there, there was no one for them to go and ask if it was ok for me to do that. As soon as I was away from them I couldn't help laughing to myself, 'of course it wasn't ok for me to go for a ride on my own, epically for a whole day and I wasn't meant to leave the castle, hell I wasn't meant to leave my room without a guard to escort me wherever I'm going let alone any of this and I was loving it, I knew I was probably going to regret all of this when the king is notified after his return but at this moment in time I couldn't be more happy, for these few days I was in-control of my own life.'

Tomorrow leopard will be back and who knows when I could be outside on my own in the day time again.

And since he wasn't in the castle I didn't have to wear dress all the time. So today I was wearing black leather pants with black knee length riding boots, a baggy white top that hat slightly puffy sleeves that finished just be for the bend of my arm, an oak brown corset vest that wasn't very comfortable but looked killer and I loved how it locked in the mirror, it fitted perfectly showing my carves and made my boobs look amazing 'even if I do say so myself'. Then I had a jacket the was over that, it was beautiful, different colours of brown, burgundy and gold laced in to the fabric, the front finished just at my hips but the back of it carried on past my bum and all the way to the bend of my knees, and then the outfit was finished of by a wide black leather belt with a fetcher buckle. This was me. This is how I should always dress. This is how I was comfortable, not having to wear some stupid dress that I hated jut because the king or snow liked it.

Now I'm riding in the forest on Rocinante, the top half of my hair in two braids that meet together at the back of my head, the lower half down floating behind me, bouncing with every step Rocinante takes.

I am sitting on top of the saddle that is fastened securely around Rocinante stomach and the rains hanging loosely around her neck as I hold on to her main, letting her take control of the remaining few miles of the ride, letting her choose the pace and following and trusting the horses every move.

I was heading towards my safe haven, towards the small village and the people who i have come to care about that reside within it.

x/x/x/x

Once inside the village I jump of off Rocinante and lead her by the rains through the bustling town that is wakening and preparing for the new day ahead of them.

People greet me as I walk past them, hi's and hello's and smiles and nods are exchanged as greetings.

I head strait to granny's, just like I all ways do. Before I even raise my hand to knock at the door it is being swung open.

"Well look what the cat dragged in" granny said with a huge smile on her face.

"It's lovely to see you to "I laughed

"Ohhh, you know I'm only kidding child, now come here" she said as she pulled me in to a crippling hug.

I laughed and returned the hug, resting my head in her neck. "It's really good to see you" I breathed in to her cloche covered shoulder.

She takes me by the shoulders and laughs with a concerned smile on her face as she pulls me back enough to see my face " it's only been two days since I've last seen you child, I'm sure you didn't miss me that much" oh I really did I thought. I smiled back but she could all ways she right through me, her smile faltered only a little bit before she schooled it back in to place " are you ok child" she said with a sincere voice.

I shrugged "yeh I am" I really was, I'm the best I've been in a while "I just missed you is all" then my arm is nudged by a nose. I laughed and turned my face towards Rocinante "we both did"

"Nope" she laughs "she only missed the fruit baskets I make her when she's here" she said as she leans forwards to stroke the horse's nose. Rocinante whinnies quietly and shakes her head in a way that makes it look like she is agreeing with her, which had us both laughing again. "See, I told you so. Now you go and take her to her paddock and I will send Henry over with her food. And I expect to see you At least once before you have to leave to night missy, you hear me" she said turning and pushing me towards the rode that I was to head along.

"Ohhh" I laughed "I would never forgive myself if I didn't." placing my hand over my heart dramatically.

"Get on with ya' girl" she smiled as I turned and headed to the green field.

Once inside the fence I didn't waste any time with taking the bitt from between Rocinante mouth and the reins of off her head and placed them on the fence, then doing the same with the saddle. I didn't bovver closing the gate as I knew that Rocinante would Never try and run and as I still needed to leave the paddock I saw no need to do so.

I stood there stroking her neck for a few seconds and talking to her before I started to plat small braids all the way down her main till there were a few well-placed brads throughout the horses well groomed, long black slightly curly at the ends, main But leaving the bit of hair that was at the top of her head that falls gently in front of her big brown expressive eyes until she shakes it away.

(Granny's POV)

I walk inside of my house and start to make up a basket of fruit and vegies that I had to spare and then walked out of the back door and up to the grope of children that always seem to occupy my home. But I didn't mind that at all, it's nice to have children around you.

"Henry I need you to do one more chore today"

"But that's not fair granny!" he whined "I've already done everything you've asked and I took the dry clothes off of the washing line, you didn't even as me to do that. We've just started a new game." He said trying to get granny to change her mind.

"Well that is a shame I guess Rocinante won't be getting her treat today then because I'm far to busy to take it to the paddock myself" I sighed trying to hold back a smile. I knew the moment the name Rocinante left my lips henry would know that it wasn't just her that was here.

I watched as his eyes light up, seemingly forgetting everyone and everything that he was just trying so hard to stay a part of. "Rocinante" he exclaimed "Granny! Is Regina here!" he said excitedly as he jumped up.

Still holding in my laugh that was trying so her to come out, I kept a straight face as I said " yes she is but its ok, I'm sorry I interrupted your game, carry on" I said as I turned around and let my smile out as I walked deliberately slower than usually back towards the house. Not even one step after I turn around I hear.

"NO, IT'S OK GRANNY I'LL TAKE THEM. COME ON GUYS REGINA AND ROCINANTE ARE HERE" Henry practically screams as he yanks the basket from my grip as he runs at lightning speeds past me, and a few seconds later so does every child that was on the green grass with him, all stampeding after henry to the paddocks. I laugh as I head back in to the house and start getting ready for the day a head.

_**I'm so sorry it took so long to finish this chapter and sorry there is no robin in this chapter he will hopefully be in the next one though, if not definitely the one after that.**_

_**I love it when you guys review! So please keep doing that. Any questions you what to ask or any ideas on what direction you think i should take this story i will be greatly accepted as well.**_

_**Did you enjoy it?**_

_**Shall i keep writing this story of not?**_


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